Director Lenny Abrahamson puts together an atmospheric, philosophical ghost story

Ed Symkus More Content Now

Wednesday

Aug 22, 2018 at 12:48 PMAug 23, 2018 at 11:08 AM

Irish filmmaker Lenny Abrahamson has a degree in philosophy from Trinity College Dublin, where he finished his college days after starting them at Stanford University, where he studied philosophy and made 16mm movies on the side. Career-wise, directing won out, but all of his films, from the early, limited release arthouse fare — “Adam & Paul,” “Garage,” and “What Richard Did” — to the two that gained him entry in the American market — the sweet and weird “Frank” and the harrowing and popular “Room” — share a commonality. They feature characters who, placed in odd situations, do a lot of philosophical thinking. The latter two, as well as his new one, “The Little Stranger,” adapted from the Sarah Waters novel about a house that may be haunted, and the lovelorn people who are either drawn to it or repelled by it, prove that Abrahamson knows how to latch onto a mood and keep it flowing throughout his films.

He spoke last week by phone from New York.

Q: Did you know early on that you wanted to make movies?A: Growing up in Dublin, I was obsessed with watching telly. I also watched films like crazy, and I loved books. It took me a while to realize that the way I saw things, when I was watching people talking, or at home watching family or friends, I was kind of seeing it in my head in some kind of transformed way, like it was a film. I later realized that the way I naturally saw things or imagined expressing things was sort of cinematically. I was in college with my friend Ed Guiney, who I’ve known since we were 15. He always wanted to be a film producer, and I had flirted with the idea if directing, so when we started up a group called the Trinity Video Society, I said I’d like to be the directing part. Then we raised money, bought a video camera, and started making stuff. Ed has produced all of my films.

Q: Is it true that you’ve been trying to make “The Little Stranger” for a decade?A: I had made two Irish films, back in the day, when somebody sent me a pre-published version of the novel. I read it and I absolutely loved it. I found the texture of it, the world in which it was placed, was so atmospheric, and it had this kind of delicious ghost story element ... but all in the service of some really profound and moving insights into human beings. It was this extraordinary hybrid of genre with a great piece of literary fiction. I read it and I got a feeling of I think I know how to make this; I can see it. But I was a newbie filmmaker with two small art house films to my name, and there was no way I was going to get this big, historical period novel. But a few years later I was making “Frank,” and I met some people that had the rights to the novel. I eventually I met the producers who had it, and had a long conversation with them and with Lucinda Coxon, who was adapting it. We hit it off and at that point I had much more stuff behind me, and it made sense for me to do it.

Q: It’s a quietly creepy film, with lots of twists. What would you want viewers to know about it before seeing it?A: The ideal audience is one that knows as little as possible about the film. So, here’s what I don’t want them to think about it. I don’t want them to think they’re going to see a horror movie because it’s so not that. And if those are your expectations, you’ll be waiting for stuff that isn’t coming, and you’ll be missing stuff that IS happening. I would like people to think that this is a drama with some element of the gothic and the ghostly, but it’s primarily a drama about people.

Q: Are you at a point in your career where scripts are piling up on your desk?A: Yes, that is happening. I’m very lucky to have a huge backlog of scripts that I’m supposed to read, and I have people I trust reading them for me. But it seems to be the case that I keep going back to things that I’ve been either drawn to for ages or things that I’ve been developing with Ed.

Q: Does that mean there’s still a chance you’ll be making the boxing movie about Emile Griffith that you’ve been talking about for years?A: That’s the film I’m working on right now with the great writer Jon Raymond. We are getting close to a script that we’re happy with, it’s an amazing story, and the plan is to shoot it next year.

“The Little Stranger” opens on Aug. 31.— Ed Symkus writes about movies for More Content Now. He can be reached at esymkus@rcn.com.

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